Prose — it might be speculated — is discourse; poetry ellipsis. Prose is spoken aloud; poetry overheard. The one is presumably articulate and social, a shared language, the voice of "communication"; the other is private, allusive, teasing, sly, idiosyncratic as the spider's delicate web, a kind of witchcraft unfathomable to ordinary minds.

" 'Soul at the White Heat': The Romance of Emily Dickinson's Poetry," (Woman) Writer: Occasions and Opportunities, E.P. Dutton (1988)